Drones strafe Al-Qaeda positions in Yemen

Two drones have targeted Al-Qaeda positions in central Yemen two days after a suicide bombing in the south of the country blamed on the extremist group killed 45 people, tribal officials said.

No toll was given for the raids late Monday near Rada, a former Islamist bastion.

Al-Qaeda fighters have regrouped for the last two days in the Al-Hammah and Al-Manassah regions near Rada, in Bayda province, 170 kilometres (105 miles) southeast of the capital Sanaa, the sources said.

"Four explosions rocked the area, which was overflown by two drones in the evening," said one source. "A car belonging to an Al-Qaeda member was hit by a missile and caught fire."

The United States is the only country that has drones in the region and it has stepped up its strikes on Al-Qaeda targets in the south and east of Yemen.

Washington regards the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the most effective branch of the global jihadist network.

Hundreds of Al-Qaeda gunmen bowed to tribal pressure in January and withdrew from Rada, which they had held for nine days.

At the time the fighters were described as close to Tarek al-Dahab, the brother-in-law of the Yemeni-American extremist Anwar al-Awlaqi, killed in a US air strike in September 2011. Dahab was himself killed in mid-February.

In Saturday's suicide attack the bomber struck in Jaar, one of a string of towns in Abyan province that were retaken by government troops in June after being held by Al-Qaeda loyalists for more than a year.

In the east of the country a suspected US drone strike killed five Al-Qaeda militants late on Saturday.